Wait… We All Have Google Profiles?

Google hasn’t had much presence in social media. Google Buzz, in my opinion, hasn’t done enough for business to make it worth the effort (I do, however, cross-post to Buzz using TweetDeck). Guess how many direct responses I’ve received to my buzzes? Zero. How many followers do I have? Zero.

I was aware of Google Profiles. I just never saw much reason to spend time at yet another site updating my information and posting commentary. Heck, I still have the traditional Google profile default pic, mostly because my first handful of efforts to update it failed. I’ll be uploading my profile picture soon, though.

The default Google profile image...

Google’s recognizable social presence is real-time social media results. Tweets are returned as part of search results. Last week the Internet mogul announced plans to branch out, grabbing more public data to display with search results. Users will have more control, but, by default, searches on – oh, let’s try my name – return at first three sites (ironically, none of them link to this site), then my recent tweets.

Following up on an article by TechCrunch, Jeff Korhan is advising us to “dust off” our Google profiles so we can stand out amongst the crowds. The TechCrunch article explains Google’s plans to go full social, integrating results from more social platforms, as well as linking to Google profiles.

Whether or not you see value in maintaining a social presence via Google’s own social media platform – i.e. Buzz, you can’t ignore that Google is the #1 search engine and, for many users, will be the first step in finding out about you and your company.